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Quote:
Originally Posted by grovestreet
unsa sad pre-requisite sa quantum mechanics? hehehe.
im also in the process of reeducating myself sa physics, thanks to www.khanacademy.org. Prof. Liwag "the one" made it very boring and uninteresting for me. hahaha i hope wala si the one dire. 
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hehehe! I'm working with the on a topic in which the ONE got famous for. hahaha! Anyway, it depends on how deep you want to go in Quantum Mechanics. hehehe! You can look for books about Quantum Mechanics (QM). If you just want a brief idea about the processes and concepts and you don't want to deal with all the rigorous treatment, then you can look for QM books that are geared for scientists and engineers or QM books that is specially written for scientists or engineers working on different fields not in physics. It should be more than enough to give you an idea of everything.
But for a really strict requirement for studying introductory quantum mechanics at a higher level (if you are really specializing in physics), you will need Classical Mechanics, some Satistical Mechanics, and of course mathematics (differential equations, linear algebra, vector analysis, etc...). Then a more advanced from the previous one I mentioned would require you to have a background on advanced mathematics (special functions, operator mechanics, differential geometry, etc.....) I've literally almost gone crazy with the things I need to study right now in my MSc thesis. =(
The tricky thing with quantum mechanics is that some most of the things that are popularized by the scientific media (science documetaries) are concepts which are results from rigours calculations and derivations based on postulates in quantum mechanics. I remember in my chemistry class in my 1st undergraduate year, I really kept asking where those quantum numbers (orbital quantum numbers, spin quantum numbers, etc..Chemists use it to explain all the intermolecular forces involved in chemical reactions) in quantum chemistry really came from. I kept pushing the question on why those numbers??!! How did you come up with them? The small quantum chemistry chapter in that chemistry book we used simply summarized all concepts and just explained what everything means conceptually. It tried to make everything about quantum mechanics more tangible. hehehe! Anyway, as I kept asking my chemistry teacher about this and eventually she got pissed off and said, "GO ASK THE PHYSICISTS!" I finally understood the reason why those quantum numbers existed during my last undergrad year when I took the courses Modern Physics and Quantum Mechanics. So if you really want to learn quantum mechanics, first you have to ask yourself, "what will I need this for?" If you just need it for personal knowledge or you are just interested, then introductory QM books written not for physicists will suffice (even the internet is enough). If you are a reasearch engineer, chemist, biologist, etc.. that is currentyly working on a project that involves quantum mechanics, then you can look for those QM books written for interdiscplinary scientists. hehehe! I hope this helps. =))